India
is the largest democracy with remarkable diversity among its population of 1.2
billion which makes up about 17% of the world’s population. Almost 70% of
Indian population is rural. The adult literacy rate stands at about 60% and
this is significantly lower in women and minorities. Education in India
comprises of government, government aided and private institutions of which
nearly 40% are government. With the population growth rate of 1.5%, there is
tremendous pressure on the education system to provide quality education at
affordable price and improve the literacy rate.
Education
in India faces following primary challenges:
Innovations
required
The
challenge of educating millions of young people implies that we need to scale
up our educational efforts multi-fold despite having the largest number of
higher education institutes in the world. Scaling up is not possible unless the
students become successful, create value in the society and contribute back to
their better still new institutes of global standards themselves.
The curriculum of some of the colleges/universities is more or less obsolete
and do not equip students with the necessary skills or impart latest knowledge.
If a student passes out of a chosen course, he or she should be employable as a
work force. Unfortunately, given the phenomenal share of lack of technical
knowledge in the courses of education, students are found wanting in the
desired skills and technical soundness. To address this issue, we may think of
strengthening the vocational streams in schools/colleges. It is urged to the
universities/schools/colleges to regularly revisit their curriculum by
involving experts from different fields so that the curriculum can lead to
knowledge development. Further, why can we not use the available infrastructure
more intensely? For instance, why cannot a second stream of courses, say
vocational, be run in the evening/night so that the available /created
infrastructure is better utilized.
Ethics in Education
As
education has to be made affordable to all deserving and poor students, there
is a strong need for educational institutions not to over-commercialize
education but to uphold ethics in the business of education as well. It is not
anyone’s case that the business has to be run unprofitably but the business
must be carried out with ethical values for sustenance of educational
institutions. Over exploitation should be avoided. Profit cannot be the sole
motive for undertaking this business. It must be driven by an unflinching commitment
to society which in turn will benefit the business in the long run.
Teachers
are the most important factors for any innovative society because teachers’
knowledge and skills not only enhance quality and efficacy of education, but
also improve the potential for research and innovation. Given the higher level
of GER to be achieved by 2020, a large number of teachers would be required to
educate the growing young population. Maybe, students could be used as
teachers, especially good students coming from lower income groups so that they
can be partly be compensated. Further, barring some leading
schools/universities/autonomous educational institutions, many of the teachers
of colleges/universities need to hone their skills/talent. There is a need to
encourage teachers to participate by presenting research papers in
seminars/workshops/conferences and receive periodic trainings for updation of
knowledge/skills. It is equally important that a feedback mechanism from
students is introduced in universities/colleges to assess and evaluate
teachers’ role in the institutional developmental process.
Quality of education
Given
that we need to compete globally in the 21st century, our education system
should adopt certain benchmarking techniques for improving instruction models
and administrative procedures in universities/colleges to move forward. It is
suggested that we need a thorough study and evaluation of models implemented
elsewhere and work out strategies to adopt such models in our system.
Benchmarking in my opinion would provide benefits to our education system in
terms of reengineering, setting right objectives, etc.
The
country is showing consistency in economic growth pattern, leading the world in
terms of information and technology, modernization various economic activities
and pushing for higher share of industries and services sectors of the economy
but there is one area which needs reform is “education system”. While it is
true that some investments are taking place in the country’s higher education system,
we are yet to establish world class research facilities, recruiting profound
academicians in universities/colleges/research institutions, etc.
Therefore,
it is imperative that our educational institutions are equipped with the
desired quality and standards which are essentials for transforming the younger
workforce into productive ones. Needless to reiterate that in the higher
education system focus on use of technology for effective learning by students
also need to be encouraged to have cutting edge over our competitors .
Making education affordable
In
India, if education has to reach all deserving students, it should be made
affordable. The fee structure in Government owned/sponsored institutions is
inexpensive in India. However, in some private sector institutions, which have
the freedom to prescribe fee structure and despite broad guidelines from
certain state governments, fees are beyond the capacity of poor and deserving
students. Ideally, the fee structure should vary for such economically weaker
students. It is urged to the educators to keep in mind that education should
not become prohibitively expensive and ensure that no deserving candidate is
denied admission just for the fact that he or she does not possess the
necessary financial resources.
Quality
Maintaining
standard of education in more than a million schools nationwide, offering
training programs to teachers, and keeping good balance with education system
worldwide is a big challenge. Schools vary in size and resources and are forced
compromise in the all round development opportunities they must provide to
students.
Access
Having
infrastructural constraints and social issues, it becomes harder to make
education accessible to all segments of the society (women, minorities, poor).
Cost
The
cost of education is very high even for the people and places where it is
accessible. E.g. the competitive pressure on students & parents forces them
to opt for private tuitions & trainings to supplement the school education.
Social & Cultural
The
ethnic diversity in India poses challenges to implement consistent education
nationwide. There are more than 300 languages spoken in the country and makes
it difficult to offer education tailored to specific social segment. Educating
women in some societies is a big issue. Children of poor families are forced to
work and miss out the learning opportunities. Illiterate adults have very
limited opportunities to get educated at later age in their live
The main issues and challenges of contemporary
Indian education are as follow. The fore most issue is the unsatisfaction
of youth. Teachers are unable to satisfy the youth by their knowledge
and methods of teaching their knowledge level and education system is not
providing the satisfaction and due to this the youth stands against the
teachers and system.
Another reason is discipline in
schools and colleges. This reason is given of our so called leaders and social
contractors. Who instigates the youth time to time for their own benefits.
There is the issue of problem of unemployment.
Some of our educators think that now this problem is an issue for education
system but when a youth looks his or her brother or sister unemployed even
after getting bachelor or post graduate degree , they are unemployed, this give
the birth to a revolt.
Our education is not for knowledge our education guides
students to get good marks not to get knowledge our teachers emphasis on the
marks or how they will complete their syllabus not on providing new knowledge
to students. Next should come the policy of state and central government about
the education. Education is a subject on which state band central government
both can make rules and regulation, in some matters state government says that
it is the work of central government and central government says it is the work
of state government and between these two authorities our education suffers.
Poverty can be next issue or a
challenge to which our education system is facing. Nowadays the cost of getting
education is very high so poor of our society find themselves lost in getting
education.
Political unwillingness is also
a great challenge for our education system. Politicians think that they got
five years to fulfill their wishes. Matters of education are just kept in
pending.
Casteism creates a wall between
lower class and upper class. Once I was in another college there I saw a
teacher taking fee from the students (you will say what is surprising in this
in most of the schools teacher takes fee from the students). But when a student
came to give fee, the teacher asked to put the amount on the table. That boy
put the amount on the table and went. When I asked about the matter, the
teacher replied I was busy in some other work so I could not take the amount in
hand. But reality was different, that boy belonged to SC category and that was
untouchable for the teacher… This happens in our schools and in colleges.
Dearness is another challenge
for the education system. Fee of colleges and schools is rising day by day with
public schools raising their fee structure in every session but the wages of
laborer is not increasing at the same speed. So poor people find themselves
unable in admitting their children in those schools. And government schools do
not compete with the public schools or CBSE schools.
The next challenge is our corruption
which has become the right of all government officers and whole system. In many
schools it is found that the fund which was sending to the school disappeared
on the way.
Privatization of education is great issue. Some learned people
say that government officials take higher salaries but not work according to
that. But in private institutes teachers remains in very critical conditions
which is not good for the education system.
Next issue can be the issue of unawareness of teachers about
the methods and techniques of teaching. Even they are not interested in these.
Teaching is the profession in which a teacher needs to polish his /her
knowledge day by day. And because it is the profession daily updating of methods
and techniques is compulsory. I think this is the demand of the profession but
our teachers are so rigid that they don’t want to change themselves.
Next can be according to me, the issue of character
of teachers. Our teacher’s character is going downwards. A teacher is
the only person who can change the direction of the society. He is the person
who is the center point of any education system. This influences much our
society than any other part of the society. This effects much our education
than all the above points. But nowadays news in different form can be read in
newspapers that a teacher kidnapped his /her students or a teacher raped his
student. And due to this many students left their schooling on the mid way.
All these issues and challenges did not rise in a
day they took a long period. If we look back in time, ancient time India was on
the top in education and knowledge. This was the country in which students used
to come from all over the world to acquire the knowledge and education. No country
of the world was even near to it. Then what happened to our great country?
Private college owners sell the degrees and marks
on high rates or bids. This happened due to the mentality of college owners
because most of the college owners came in this field belong to the business
families or people who had some useless land and little money to invest, they
came in this sector due to high profit and not to serve the society, which is
natural. Then how we can think that those people will serve the country and
society, because such people think treats with school as a factory,
principals/HOD as a managers and teachers as workers.
